Market briefing---Lane (medium)
NYSE---Deb (fast)
Nasdaq---Anthony (slow)
stocks rallied to lift the major indexes. the dow jones industrial average ending the day up 22 points at 9,340. s&p 500 better by three at 996. nasdaq composite up 6 1/3 at 1,770. big board volume, once again, summertime type volume, 1.2 billion shares. nasdaq, similar story, only 1.37 billion shares changing hands. the wilshire 5000 showing us a gain for the broader market of a half percent. treasuries rose as bond investors said they see value in yields at their current levels. the 10-year note on the move, and you can see that, two-year and five-year notes rose for the first day in six with a five-year note up a quarter point. the dollar held near a four-month high versus the euro/dollar in the meantime. you can see trading now as it’s going on fairly flat in the pacific rim at the moment. the price of gasoline fell from a five-month high as traders anticipated demand would slow after the labor day weekend. gasoline futures dropped three cents or almost 3% to $1.08 a gallon. crude oil in new york added 39 cents to close at $31.95 a barrel. gold prices saw their biggest gain in two weeks in new york trading, up $4.50 to close at $365.80 an ounce. for more on today’s late day reversal and what stocks moved the most we go to deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange.
>> well, lane, obviously a pretty key reversal going on in the last hour and a half of trading, really being lifted by some computer guided buy programs. not only that, as the market was getting to some technical levels really kind of touching off some buying. in fact, i was talking with phil serico of le branch specialists after close of trading. es saying we could be in a new consolidation phase between 9250 and 9500, because we seem to be gravitating in this area quite so much. he said last week this 9,350 area was certainly a very important aur yeah before the market broke out and got above the 9400 area only to migrate back to it. if you look at some of the stocks that we did see reversal in, these were many of the dow leaders like 3m, also general motors, united technologies, also procter & gamble. so we saw many of the dow components seeing that reversal and seeing that buying come up near the close of trading. also in the s&p 500 we saw telecom stocks among some of the key leaders in this reversal. as you can see, that reversal going on there. many of those stocks , not a whole lot of news going on, but that’s the kind of thing you would expect on a day where you have some pretty light volume going on, in fact, 1.1 billion shares with our volume. remember yesterday we didn’t even break a billion shares, and in fact, that was only three days this year that we haven’t broken a billion shares. the other two days previous to yesterday was the day after the blackout, and then on july 3rd. s&p, the s&p auto and component index, it was sitting atop as the biggest gainer in the s&p 500 all day today, maintained that stance even throughout the reversal that we did see, many of the auto related stocks performing quite well. home builders, another area of the market that we did see quite a bit of interest in. toll brothers had ha third quarter profit of 27%, that as the low mortgage rates fueled sales. however, those new home sales coming down just a little bit. remember mortgage rates did increase about 1 percentage point during the month of july. back to you in the studio.
>> deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange. the nasdaq broke its two-day losing streak as it rallied to close higher for the day, on lighter than average volume. anthony massucci has more on today’s nasdaq trading.
>> and the volume came in at 1.35 on the nasdaq today, lighter than average, as you mentioned, three-month averages, 1.6 billion. the average for a year, 1.5 billion. with the move in the afternoon, the late move, last 90 minutes or so where volume picked up, you saw the financials take the leadership role, networking stocks closed the day higher, a few of the financial names like fifth third bank went higher, northern trust, southern trust. also traders saying this is the slowest week of the year. with that volume in mind, ed larson at aim capital said there aren’t a lot of people around trying to make anything happen. one stock that was around all day long moving higher, ciena. the shares were up as u.b.s. raised their rating to neutral. they had a reduced rating on it. their 12-month price forecast is below ciena’s close. they think the stock will go to $5.50 for the year. with that the stock traded higher on the upgrade. investors were focused on that upgrade. networking stocks actually moved the day higher. cisco, for example, which was down in the morning, closed the afternoon up. juniper networks, another networking stock that moved up for the day. let’s look at chip stocks . intel was another one, starting lower, moved higher. initially craig barrett making comments in malaysia today, saying that the company will be very conservative with its forecasts. it will take a couple of quarters of above average growth in order to forecast a resurgence, he said. the company will take it one quarter at a time. well, taking it one day at a time, intel, which was down, closed the day up. the chip stocks , though, as a group, closed the day lower. one stock , novellus finished the day down. they do have their mid quarter call on thursday. a lot of folks looking toward that to get an idea of the sales growth in the semiconductors to see if what intel is seeing, novellus is also seeing in the chip equipment field. we’ll keep you tuned in on that. that comes thursday. for the day, the nasdaq higher. back to you in the studio.
>> anthony massucci at the nasdaq. now, from equities to bonds, our next guest is most bullish on corporate bonds and least bullish on treasuries. we’ll talk to james custer, portfolio manager at waddell & reed advisors bond fund. managing $1.7 billion in bonds.
